Tatzu Nishi

Tatzu Nishi (西野達, Nishino Tatsu, born Tazro Niscino 1960) is a Japanese site specific installation artist.

Nishi is known for his art interventions, which often transform historical monuments by surrounding a statue or a small element of a building with domestic space.

[6] In 2017, Tatzu Nishi was selected for the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize in Japan.

[7] Nishi has built public artworks, sometimes in the form of fabricated hotels and apartments, around historical monuments in Europe, Australia, Asia and North America.

[8] In 2002 Nishi constructed a small one-room apartment around a wind vane on the rood of the Basel Minster Cathedral in Switzerland.

[15] In 2006, Nishi built a bedroom around the "Pyrotechnist", a statue of a man seated on a horse that is used as a brand symbol for the Tokyo Hermès store.

[19] For the 2011 Singapore Biennale, Tatzu Nishi created a luxury hotel room around the Merlion statue, which is a well-known tourist attraction.

[21] Nishi was the first guest who spent the night in the hotel and afterward allowed for the public to make reservations that cost SGD 150 (at the time) for two people.

[21][22] The 2012 project Villa Cheminée featured a small hotel placed on top of a replica of a power station tower in Cordemais, France.

[31] While the project was highly successful in terms of attendance,[32][33] it was also controversial, with some members of the Italian-American community claiming that the artwork disparaged Columbus.

[42] Nishi's 2015 public sculpture in Nantes, France placed a series of household objects, including a piano, a bed, a chair, a coat rack, a heater, a bathroom sink and a stack of books, above the head of the statue of general Émile Mellinet in the Général-Mellinet park.

[45] During the 2017 Bi-City Biennale in Shenzhen, China, Nishi constructed a part of a roadway in the third-floor worker's dormitory of a former factory.

[53][54] Tatzu Nishi was invited to SIAF 2020 (The Sapporo International Art Festival), given the idea of creating an installation that alternates between vehicles and the living space of a home called “Tunnel of Daily Life”.